Fire destroys wind turbine at Pacific Blue’s Clements Gap

A wind turbine has been destroyed at the 56.7MW Clements Gap wind farm in South Australia’s mid north, after it caught on fire on Wednesday.

The wind farm’s owner, Pacific Blue, says the smoke from the turbine was spotted by a maintenance crew at 8:30am, and emergency services were alerted to the incident immediately.

The South Australia Country Fire Service says five crews attended the fire, which took “some time” to burn out. Firefighters were also required to put out multiple spot fires caused by falling debris.

“On arrival, crews found a grass fire underneath the turbine and a lot of debris being thrown under the turbine [from the fire above],” CFS Region 4 duty officer Andrew Stuart told ABC News.

“They conducted some successful backburning operations to make sure we could keep the fire contained this afternoon.”

Stuart said the fire sparked below the turbine burnt about 30 hectares of grassland. He also noted that wind turbine fires were uncommon, with just a few last year, including one at Port Lincoln in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

The cause of the fire – which is believed to have caused $2.2 million of damage to the wind farm – is currently unknown. No one was injured in the incident.

Clements Gap is one of the more senior wind farms in South Australia and the first for Pacific Blue (formerly Pacific Hydro) in that state. Its 27 Suzlon S88 turbines started sending power to the grid in up in 2010.

In a statement on Wednesday, Pacific Blue said the site of the fire has been secured and power to the affected turbine has been isolated. Investigations are
underway to determine the cause of the incident.

“Pacific Blue remains committed to upholding the highest safety standards and will continue to work closely with relevant authorities to complete investigations,” the statement says.

“We would like to extend our appreciation to the emergency services for their rapid response and effective collaboration.”

Clements Gap was one of four wind farms sued by the Australian Energy Regulator in 2019 over the role of wind farms in the 2016 South Australian blackout that left 850,000 homes and businesses without power as the entire state experienced a “system black”.